TRADITIONALLY,
RIGHT around the crossroads
of age 50 and menopause,
women are supposed to
disappear, to fade away into
a sea of other women dressed
with similar decorum: Short,
nondescript hair; sad, sensible
shoes; and plain clothing that
covers as many body parts
as possible.
But while the
unenlightened are still
debating whether women
over 50 should be allowed to
wear miniskirts, nothing short
of a fashion revolution has
been taking place on the red
carpet. Think about Jane
Fonda’s stunning appearance
at the Emmys last fall in
a loor-length fuchsia Brandon
Maxwell gown with
a scooped back and a long
blonde ponytail. The fact that
a woman of 79 would appear in public in garb generally deemed
appropriate for a woman much younger felt rebellious. And then
there was this year’s Oscars: Fonda, again lexing her right to wear
whatever she wanted, in a perfect white Balmain column dress;
Rita Moreno, 86, in the same black-and-gold dress she’d worn to
the Academy Awards six decades before; and Eva Marie Saint, 93,
presenting an award in a timeless black dress complete with ruled-
cuf sleeves. This is what fashion is about right now: Breaking the
rules about age-appropriate dressing for women ‘of a certain age.’
And it’s not just happening on the red carpet.
Women over 50 today look and feel younger than the women
of their mothers’ generation did when they were that age.
For them, the 50-plus years aren’t about sliding into retirement
but about reinvention and new opportunities. Perhaps that’s why
I can’t think of anyone I know who ‘dresses her age’. My friends
and I still wear bikinis and miniskirts. We show our cleavage and
our upper arms. We wear yoga pants. I see a lot of women, freedfrom marriages and their
child-rearing days, embracing
a teenage, hippie-style look.
One friend has even taken
to wearing her still-long hair
in braids.
These days, when it comes
to fashion, it’s often women
of a certain age who are
taking some of the biggest
risks. When I go into Gucci
and see a loral bomber jacket
emblazoned with tiger faces,
and I say to the salesperson,
“It’s fabulous, but who on
earth would wear this?”
The answer, inevitably, is an
older woman. Case in point:
The 89-year-old director
Agnès Varda wearing Gucci
loral silk pajamas to collect
her Oscar at this year’s
ceremony. A stroll down
Madison Avenue gives further
credence to this theory. I’ve
seen women in light blue leggings and matching platform sneakers,
head-to-toe black leather, and neon tracksuits. They are women
with hair dyed pink and blue halfway down their backs. If you
didn’t see their faces, you might mistake them for women much
younger. Maybe that’s why there’s always a certain deiance in their
attitude. Which is understandable.
It’s hard to break free from all the negative messages we’ve
absorbed about fashion and age, as I discovered recently when
debating whether or not to buy a pair of gorgeous hot-pink
neoprene boots. Twenty years ago, I would have snapped them
up. But now? The old-fashioned voice in my head told me that
hot-pink boots were not appropriate for a woman of my age.
They were too showy. Too attention-grabbing. I thought that
people would look at the shoes and all they’d see was a 60-year-
old woman. And then I remembered Jane Fonda. She broke the
rules because she had the guts to be seen. She didn’t blend in;
she didn’t disappear. Needless to say, I bought the boots. ■AT EVERY AGE
STYLE
GREAT
(From left) Candace Bushnell in a Manrico Cashmere dress; Rita Moreno in
vintage Pitoy Moreno; and Jane Fonda in BalmainCelebrated author Candace Bushnell on the over-50 fashion revolution“This is what fashion is about right now:
Breaking the rules about age-appropriate dressing
for women ‘of a certain age’.”CLINT SPAULDING/WWD/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; STEVE GRANITZ/WIREIMAGE; KEVIN MAZUR/WIREIMAGEBazaar
STYLE